Pokemon
Pokemon
How to get mystery gift function and Manaphy in Pokemon BDSP
Steven Rondina
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl have one of the best early purchase mystery gifts in the franchise’s history, but how do you actually get the mystery gift function? It’s very easy to miss how to get access to the mystery gift menu option in Pokemon BDSP, but the good news is that players can rectify this at any time. They ought to do it fairly soon however, as mythical …
Pokemon
This is the best Decidueye build for Pokemon Unite
Steven Rondina
Decidueye has arrived in Pokemon Unite and now the question is, “What’s the best way to build it?” Decidueye is possibly the most traditional MOBA character in all of Pokemon Unite. While many have similarities to heroes and champions from Dota 2 and League of Legends, Decidueye is a pure carry character without any especially flashy abilities. Instead, the Pokemon’s basic attack is its greatest weapon, with the ability to …
Pokemon
These are all of the version exclusive Pokemon in BDSP
Steven Rondina
A staple of the Pokemon video game series is releasing two games with each featuring version-exclusive Pokemon, and Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl is no exception. Different Pokemon generations have had a variety of features to differentiate either title within each generation, and this has changed over time. Unfortunately, there isn’t much to tell apart Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl besides the different Pokemon split between the two games. …
Pokemon
Dataminer claims Tsareena coming to Pokemon Unite soon
Steven Rondina
Decidueye’s arrival in Pokemon Unite is right around the corner, but another gen-seven grass-type Pokemon is set to arrive not long after. According to a datamine posted to Reddit, Tsareena is set to arrive in Pokemon Unite later this year. The dataminer also suggests that Tsareena will be made available for free as part of an event. While previous Pokemon data mines have discovered fully workable builds of upcoming Pokemon, …
Pokemon
Greedent nerfs highlight new Pokemon Unite balance update
William Davis
Pokemon Unite continues to push balance updates to the game as the playable Pokemon roster expands with the recent release of Greedent and the upcoming release of Decidueye. In this newest balance update, Pokemon Unite made changes to quite a few Pokemon, but one specifically was in focus. It was new melee defender Greedent who got some big changes, most of them being nerfs to its strong kit. Greedent also …
Pokemon
Mew and Jirachi return in Pokemon BDSP, here’s how to get them
Steven Rondina
Popular mythical Pokémon Mew and Jirachi are set to make their return to Pokémon video games in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. With the launch of Pokémon BDSP just around the corner, Nintendo is pulling back the curtain on some of the new features that will be available in the games. This includes some new post-game content in Ramanas Park, which will be available to players after they defeat the …
Pokemon
Pokemon Unite hints that Decidueye is joining roster
Olivia Richman
Pokemon Unite fans are confident that Decidueye will be the next Pokemon to join the Pokemon Unite roster. On November 8, the game’s official Twitter account stated that a Pokemon was “flying true like an arrow” into the arena. The hint was accompanied by a picture of arrows outlined in green energy raining down from the sky. While Pokemon didn’t mention which Pokemon was coming to Unite next, fans immediately …
Pokemon
What’s new in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl?
Steven Rondina
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are right around the corner and for many, the biggest question is what new content do these games bring to the table? Game Freak has traditionally done a good job with its mainline Pokémon game remakes, balancing the classic experience with new trimmings implemented in the generations since then. Pokémon BDSP is actually supposed to go in a different direction, standing as one of …
Pokemon Unite season 3 adds new battle pass, removes rewards
Steven Rondina
Pokemon
Pokemon Unite season 3 is here, and with it comes a new battle pass. The space-themed second season is officially over, and a surprising new battle pass is on the way. Though the winter holidays are sneaking up quickly, the new Pokemon Unite battle pass has a summery vibe with the name “Sun, Sun, Sunshine. The centerpiece to the battle pass is a pair of holowears for first-generation starters. This …
How to counter Cobalion, Terrakion, and Virizion in Pokemon GO
Steven Rondina
Pokemon
Cobalion, Terrakion, and Virizion are returning to raids in Pokemon GO, and it’s worthwhile to counter, defeat, and capture all three of them. The Swords of Justice have returned to Pokemon GO as five-star raid bosses for the Festival of Lights event. The gen five legendary trio will be randomly appearing from five-star raid eggs throughout the Festival of Lights’ 10-day runtime. Cobalion, Terrakion, and Virizion have unique and powerful …
Pokemon GO Festival of Lights arrives with fireworks show
Steven Rondina
Pokemon
Pokemon GO players are being treated to a fireworks display as part of the Festival of Lights event. Many cultures around the world have a “festival of lights” holiday, with Pokemon GO celebrating Diwali. Diwali is a five-day festival celebrating light’s defeat of shadow. Pokemon GO is joining in on the celebration with a 10-day event based around fire and electric-type Pokemon. Alongside the fireworks, new raid bosses have arrived …
Is a Pokemon Emerald port coming to Nintendo Switch?
Steven Rondina
Pokemon
For many, the Gameboy Advance era of Pokemon games was the greatest of them all, with Pokemon Emerald being the best among them. So will it ever be brought back to life on the Nintendo Switch? While Ruby and Sapphire received remakes with Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Emerald was never given that treatment. So do fans of the only green Pokemon game to hit western shores have any hope …
How to build and play Greedent in Pokemon Unite
Steven Rondina
Pokemon
Greedent has arrived in Pokemon Unite and, as with every other defender in the game, it’s getting a stint of being wildly overpowered. Following in the footsteps of early top-tier Pokemon Snorlax and the devastatingly strong Crustle, Greedent has incredible bulk, the ability to deal big damage, and can easily score goals even as enemies try to stop them. Some of this is likely to be rolled back over time, …
These are the most expensive cards of Pokemon Celebrations TCG
William Davis
Pokemon
The Pokemon franchise is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and for the TCG that means a set of cards that will give every player and collector a nostalgic trip. Pokemon Celebrations is the newest Pokemon TCG set which is made to celebrate the 25 years of Pokemon. It’s a small but intense set which has reintroduced some of the most iconic cards from across Pokemon history, starting with the …
Pokemon Unite fans rage over Halloween Festival event rewards
Steven Rondina
Pokemon
Pokemon Unite is having its first seasonal event with the Halloween Festival, but fans are calling foul over the lack of treats being made available. The Halloween Festival offers players the ability to grab a handful of limited-edition cosmetics for their trainer avatars. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that players will be able to actually obtain all of them. Players only have the ability to get 96 pumpkins, which serve as the …
How to catch and use Sirfetch’d in Pokemon GO
Steven Rondina
Pokemon
Pokemon GO has a number of fun regional variants available for players to add to their lineups, and Sirfetch’d is one of the best. The Galarian Pokemon was made available in Pokemon GO last year and stands out from the pack as a pure fighting type with great move coverage. On top of that is a high CP ceiling that makes Sirfetch’d viable in raids, PVP battling, and fights with …
New Hisuian Zorua and Zoroark coming in Pokemon Legends: Arceus
Steven Rondina
Pokemon
Another new Hisuian Pokemon has been revealed for Pokemon Legends: Arceus. The Pokemon Company went in a very surprising direction with one of its recent trailers for the upcoming open-world Pokemon game. Instead of running through gameplay footage, the latest Pokemon Legends: Arceus trailer was fully cinematic with a unique found-footage style that hearkened to the Blair Witch Project style of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Though it was …
Leak finds new Pokemon Unite Holowear, including epic Crustle
Steven Rondina
Pokemon
Pokemon Unite is set to add a bunch of new Holowear skins over the next month, and a leak is letting fans exactly know what’s coming. Following the announcement of the Halloween Festival, a leak has revealed more Pokemon Unite skins that are set to arrive in November. These skins are follow-ups to established Holowear styles with new ones being discovered alongside the Holowears that were revealed in the Halloween …
Everything you need to know about shadow bans in Pokemon GO
Steven Rondina
Pokemon
While there are an abundance of different third-party tools in existence for Pokemon GO, they run the risk of getting the player shadow banned. Developer Niantic’s primary way of punishing players who violate the terms of service for Pokemon GO is to give them a shadow ban. This has been a steady theme throughout Niantic’s existence, and is a threat in its original GPS-based AR game Ingress as well as …
Big Venusaur, Lucario nerfs coming in Pokemon Unite patch
Steven Rondina
Pokemon
Some big changes are coming in Pokemon Unite’s 1.2.1.8 patch. The update is set to either buff or nerf a number of playable Pokemon and shake up the three main neutral objective Pokemon. Alongside this are several UI and quality of life improvements, as well as some early staging for the upcoming Pokemon Unite Halloween Festival that will add new Pokemon Greedent. In all, four Pokemon are receiving buffs while …
Pokemon stands as the largest cross-media IP in the world by a comfortable margin, but how did it make such explosive gains?
For a long while, pivoting a video game franchise into a larger brand seemed impossible. Iconic titles like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Resident Evil received TV and film adaptations, with the most common result being catastrophic failure. That was the norm from the 1990s all the way into the 2020s; and it probably shouldn’t have been.
While Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li and Silent Hill: Revelation were irredeemably bad, Pokemon showed that a video game series can be adapted into many different mediums. Here’s a quick history of the franchise and its future outlook.
Pokemon explodes with Game Boy games, quickly expands
Pokemon first arrived in Japan in 1996 with the release of Pokemon Red and Green; a pair of titles for the Nintendo Game Boy. The two games were largely identical, but each one had a handful of Pokemon that were exclusive to those titles. This encouraged players to collect and trade these monsters with others who purchased the games.
Later on in 1996, the game was reimagined as a trading card game. Then in 1997, an anime adaptation launched in Japan.
Both of those rapid-fire expansions earned strong success domestically. More importantly, it primed Pokemon for an overwhelming global push.
In 1998, the franchise officially crossed over into North America, Europe, and Australia. The games were killer apps for the Game Boy but it wasn’t just a video game. An accompanying anime aired new episodes daily, and the trading card game exploded out of the gate. This made it difficult to ignore Pokemon to the point where characters like Ash Ketchum and Pikachu were universally recognizable. Just like that, the franchise was unstoppable.
Pokemon expands beyond Nintendo consoles, grows even further
For decades, Pokemon video games were among the top-selling games each year they came out. The Pokemon TCG was one of the biggest in the industry. The anime was a constant, without even mentioning its many spin-off movies. Licensing characters for toys and apparel was a golden goose for all involved.
But the franchise was still positioned to grow further.
Almost all of the games were exclusive to Nintendo’s gaming hardware, but mobile gaming was on a sharp rise of its own. The franchise also released a long list of spin-offs, successfully turning the series into everything from a pinball game to a beat ‘em up. The Pokemon Company had dabbled with PC and mobile games previously, but started actively partnering with other studios in the 2010s.
The biggest example of this was Pokemon GO. The Pokemon Company partnered with AR game studio Niantic was an instant hit, being downloaded hundreds of millions of times. It was far from alone, however. Battling-focused gacha game Pokemon Masters, MOBA adaptation Pokemon Unite, and puzzle game Pokemon Cafe launched in the following years.
It wasn’t just licensed mobile games, though. Games like Detective Pikachu and New Pokemon Snap gave players fresh and varied ways to enjoy the familiar franchise.
Modern Pokémon games see mixed response, but sales remain strong
Though Pokémon has many lifelong fans, the mainline releases have long attracted controversy within the fandom. Though the first few generations were generally beloved, opinions on new and modern games releases vary wildly. Starting with the Nintendo Switch, critical response to the games wavered.
Reviews for Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee were lower than previous entries in the series. That pattern held with Pokémon Sword and Shield, which were also met with extreme backlash on social media.
Though each mainline game made every monster from previous generations available up until Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, this ended with Sword and Shield. Several fan favorites, including Beedrill and the Unovan starters, were made unobtainable in the game. The mega evolution and Z-move battle mechanics were also removed from the games. It’s unclear why or what methodology was used to determine which of the little monsters were left out.
Reviews sank further from there, with Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, then Pokémon Scarlet and Violet garnering the lowest review averages for mainline games.
Despite this, the games were still an enormous commercial success. Pokémon Sword, Shield, Scarlet, and Violet ranked among the best-selling games in franchise history. Its publisher may have heeded some of the fan criticism however, as the company opted against releasing a new mainline game or expansion in 2024. This was the first year without a major game release since 2015.
